Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

Introduction

Action for Public Transport (NSW) ("APT NSW") is a transport advocacy group active in Sydney since 1974. Our members are users of public transport services. Our comments concern both the Urban Renewal Strategy dated September 2015, and the companion document issued by Transport for NSW, the Sydney CBD to Parramatta Strategic Transport Plan.

Summary

It is increasingly evident that the Westconnex plans undermine UrbanGrowth's stated aim of civilising Parramatta Rd. The same is true of prospects for the Bays Precinct for which UrbanGrowth has responsibility (the latest incarnation of Westconnex takes over the Rozelle goods line corridor and proposes an interchange near the intersection of Victoria Rd and the Anzac Bridge).

While UrbanGrowth busies itself developing visions of active precincts and "density done well", strategic pieces of land are being eaten up by Westconnex, or rendered inhospitable to those visions.

Public transport services are inadequate in the proposed precincts west of Leichhardt, and there are no firm commitments to improve them. It is premature to rezone land for significantly higher densities along the Parramatta Rd corridor until this inadequacy is rectified.

UrbanGrowth should make a concerted effort to widen the footpaths along Parramatta Rd, improve crossing opportunities and introduce exclusive lanes for public transport during the short period between the widening of the M4 and the inevitable growth of traffic to fill the additional road space available.

Parramatta Road as it is now
A degraded environment

The ills of Parramatta Rd were correctly diagnosed in the previous version of the Strategy in February 2015:

Pedestrians and cyclists find little pleasure there. Shops and businesses operate in a difficult environment. Overpowered by traffic congestion, it has ceased to be a comfortable environment for anyone

This is echoed in the Strategic Transport Plan (p.18), which notes that "Parramatta Road is generally unpleasant for walking and cycling", and notes (p. 25) that pedestrians face limited opportunities for crossing both roads and railways and must sometimes deal with long wait times to cross major roads. This is a real deterrent to public transport journeys, as they always involve some walking.

Poor public transport services

The Strategic Transport Plan indicates confirms that west of Leichhardt, Parramatta Rd and the precincts proposed by Urban Growth are poorly served by public transport (especially bus services¹). Frequencies are much too low and connections are poor.

Public transport services

Urban Growth clearly recognises in its Strategy that it would be unconscionable to bring an extra 70,000 people into the existing Parramatta Rd. corridor. Public domain improvements alone are not enough to alter this position. The success of the Urban Renewal Strategy depends on frequent, high capacity public transport, put in place in advance.

The recently announced light rail route from Westmead to Strathfield (via Olympic Park) is a welcome initiative (see map below).

As yet, however, there are no government commitments to better public transport for the proposed Parramatta Road precincts. The provision of much higher levels of service is still not recognised in the Urban Renewal Strategy as a condition precedent to the significant rezonings it proposes.

The Strategic Transport Plan contains the statement (p.20): "when stage 1 of Westconnex is completed in 2019 new priority bus measures will be implemented along Parramatta Road subject to road space availability". The M4 East EIS (discussed below) concedes however that unless and until the whole, multibillion dollar, creeping project is built - there will be continuing congestion, suggesting there will be no "road space availability." The Strategic Transport Plan also hints at possible improvements (p.20) (such as "turn up and go" frequencies for buses between Burwood and the Sydney CBD).

The lack of public transport accessibility verified by the Strategic Transport Plan does not seem to have resulted in any change to the Urban Strategy. The same precincts are proposed, and rezoning in the "short-term", to allow an additional population of 70,000 is still proposed, regardless of whether or not the current deficiency is remedied.

This is not what APT (NSW) would regard as "integrated land use and transport planning". We would expect the outcome of a truly integrated exercise to be a commitment to putting fast, high frequency services in place before major increases in population.

APT (NSW) agrees with the principle stated in the Strategic Transport Plan (p.5, p.23): a connected network allowing for multi-modal trips, and seamless interchange. Sydney's public transport system needs to evolve from a mainly radial commuter network to an interconnected web of routes. This approach would make centres other than the existing CBD much easier to access by public transport. It can only work if frequencies are high, as it depends on seamless interchanges between services.

A non-infrastructure initiative supportive of this principle would be to integrate fares completely, as we have advocated in submissions to IPART.

Density

As we noted in our submission on the previous version of the Strategy, good public transport services do not require a wholesale shift to high-rise development. There are many desirable places in Sydney's eastern suburbs and north shore that have good public transport services, but retain the human scale that is central to their walkability and their liveability.

The typology of housing in those areas is varied. The differences in public transport use and effective density in these areas owes more to the level of public transport services provided, the amount of land devoted to asphalt, and the walkability of the streets than it does to the typology of housing.

Blues Point tower is no better at supporting a decent public transport system than the terrace houses and variety of human scaled alternatives that surround it.

Conversely, it is inaccurate to suggest that increases in density automatically lead to better public transport. It has not happened in Harold Park, where off-peak frequencies on bus route 433 remain at a dismal 30 minutes, despite the high density of the new development and its proximity to the city and two universities. Nor will it happen of its own accord in the Parramatta corridor. Firm commitments to improved services are needed now.

Focus on Parramatta as a second CBD

APT (NSW) notes the suggestion in the Strategic Transport Plan (p.11) that metropolitan-wide planning is "continuing its focus on Parramatta as Sydney's second CBD". We endorse this approach. We agree that this offers the potential to create a more even pattern of public transport use in both directions (p. 9).

We do not entirely agree with the statement (p.19) "jobs will need to be dispersed to multiple nodes across the Sydney Metropolitan area, including Parramatta". Jobs, especially higher order "knowledge" jobs, need to cluster in locations with superior levels of accessibility by public transport so that they can draw on the deepest pool of workers.

Efforts to "move jobs" fail if serious public transport links are not there. The departure of the Commonwealth Bank from Olympic Park is an illustration. Olympic Park is over-endowed with parking and road access is well provided for, but public transport links are focused on major events and otherwise poor. For a long while this major employer "got by" with putting on its own bus transport, but it now intends to move to a location more accessible to employees by public transport.

Westconnex won't work

It is regrettable that both UrbanGrowth and Transport for NSW are meekly reproducing the flawed reasoning and puffery emanating from Westconnex, and dutifully (re)drawing lines on maps to reflect its latest proposals. Westconnex cannot accurately be described as Australia's "largest transport and integrated urban revitalisation project". It is an old-fashioned road-building plan, a highly inefficient method of connecting people and places in major cities

The EIS for the M4 East now confirms that the impact of constructing that section of Westconnex will be to worsen traffic congestion at the point at which it emerges on Parramatta Rd (at Wattle St).

The EIS then unconvincingly proposes to "mitigate" the problem by adding more "Westconnex" road projects to move the bottlenecks along, one at a time². This is a ridiculous way to undertake transport planning. Wherever Westconnex emerges, it can only dump more traffic on roads that lack the capacity to take additional traffic. Options for public transport improvements that would reduce congestion and support urban renewal are meanwhile stuck in a queue waiting for funding.

Induced traffic

The phenomenon of induced traffic has been empirically established over many years³. It can be stated with a high degree of confidence that the widening of the M4 will induce more traffic to occupy the additional space available.

That said, there could be a short period of relief for Parramatta Road, as that phenomenon plays out. A concerted effort to widen the footpaths along Parramatta Rd, improve crossing opportunities and introduce exclusive lanes for public transport can and should be made.

Surface impacts

Westconnex is often portrayed as an underground tunnel, but it is in fact land-hungry. Flyovers and interchanges, portals, and ramps are land uses. They occupy prime urban space that could otherwise be available for more productive land uses, like housing, employment, shops and cafes, recreational facilities and public transport facilities.

The range of uses on adjoining land is also curtailed. The EIS for the "new M5" currently on exhibition makes it clear that "Future development of land (including re-zonings) in the vicinity of the ventilation facilities that may involve multi-story buildings would need to consider the air dispersion performance of the New M5 facilities". The implication is clear enough.

The end result is that Westconnex is likely to reduce urban densities. Integrating land use planning and transport planning is an attractive notion but it misses a key point: Transport planning is land use planning.

Conclusion

Before it progresses its planned rezonings, we believe that UrbanGrowth needs to put its full weight behind the provision of high capacity, high frequency public transport services along the Parramatta Rd. corridor, linked in a grid pattern to the broader public transport network. The focus should be on improving access to Parramatta, rather than the existing CBD.

APT NSW believes that this approach would genuinely facilitate the renewal of Parramatta Road and would be a far wiser use of the Westconnex budget.

There will be a brief opportunity to widen the footpaths along Parramatta Rd, improve crossing opportunities and introduce exclusive lanes for public transport, and we hope UrbanGrowth does not let that opportunity pass.